100 days in office: This is what Joe Biden’s relationship with Congress looks like

When Joe Biden assumed office as 46th President of United States, the relationship between the executive and the legislature, the two cornerstones of any democracy, was witnessing its all-time low. While Biden had throughout his campaign maintained that he would make Republicans in Congress work with him, Democrats on the other hand, in January, had moved to impeach former president Donald Trump for the second time.

Now, 100 days after 78-year-old Democrat took over the presidential office, the relationship between the US President and the Congress could be put as complicated or be called “mildly calm.”

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By very slim margins, Democrats enjoy unified partisan control, as the party is in majority in the House of Representatives and in a tie with Republicans in the Senate. Despite that, Biden has continued to engage with congressional Republicans, starting with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

In early February, Biden met the GOP leaders to discuss their $618 billion proposal, which was only about one-third of the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. However, the proposal was rejected. Even though many Republicans backed some parts of the bill, no GOP leader voted for Biden’s rescue package as they opposed size and the scope of effort of it.

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Biden, on the recently proposed American Jobs Plan, said that administration is “prepared to negotiate as to the extent of the infrastructure project, as well as how we pay for it.”

The $2.3 trillion million American Jobs Plan, which was unveiled on March 31, proposes a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure, jobs investments panning over eight years, and other plans.

On Biden completing 100 days in office, Senate Minority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell described the tenure as “Biden bait and switch.”

As a candidate who ran as a moderate, McConnell said, “I’m hard-pressed to think of anything at all that he’s done so far that would indicate some degree of moderation.”

In his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday, Biden is expected to detail his another package — American Families Plan.

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As some GOP leaders are acknowledging that Biden is popular among Americans now, some have pointed out that the US President has run on reaching out and working with him but has shut them out of major policy decisions.

The No 2 House GOP leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, while noting that Biden has not met or even asked to meet top House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, or him, has said that the Democrat President was pursuing a “go-it-alone strategy.”